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Rudy Gobert Trade Grades: Who won the trade between the Jazz and the Timberwolves?

Wow, man. This league. I hate saying that, but I’m just not really sure what else to say.

All within a 24-hour window, we got Kevin Durant requesting a trade from Brooklyn and the Utah Jazz finally breaking up their core and moving Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

This is madness. It’s a free agency frenzy. And the thing about it is there’s plenty more to come.

Before we get into all that, though, we need to take a second and get a feel for where we’re at with this deal here. Gobert to the Timberwolves shakes things up quite a bit in the Western Conference.

So who got the better end of this deal? Let’s dive into the details and take a look.

The Details

(Photo by GEORGE FREY / AFP)

Alright, so here we are.

The Timberwolves get: Rudy Gobert

The Jazz get: Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Walker Kessler and Jarred Vanderbilt along with the Wolves’ 2023, 2025 and 2027 1st round picks without protection. They also get a top 5 protected 2029 1st.

The Jazz

Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

GRADE: A+

There’s really not too much more you can ask for from this deal with the Jazz. They don’t really have to start over — they got a full rotation of players in Beasley, Beverley and Vanderbilt here along with a solid prospect in Walker.

But if they wanted to just tear it down to the studs and build anew, they can do that, too. What they traded for essentially amounts to five draft picks starting with Kessler, who was a 1st round pick this year. On top of that, they’ve got four future draft picks with 3 of them being unprotected. In just 24 hours, they’ve amassed 6 1sts between this deal and the Royce O’Neale trade. 

The Timberwolves could be good throughout the next 4 years of Gobert’s contract — that’s what they’re banking on. But anytime you have unprotected picks on the table it’s a terrifying proposition. The mid-2010s Brooklyn Nets are a cautionary tale for a reason.

So, regardless of how things shake out on the Wolves’ end, the Jazz made out spectacularly well. They now have direction and that’s always a good thing.

The Timberwolves

Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY

GRADE: B-

I’m not going to lie — the Timberwolves’ angle to this thing is a bit perplexing.

The Wolves have certainly improved their starting rotation by getting a perineal Defensive Player of the Year candidate and lining him up next to Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns also gets to play the perimeter a lot more and doesn’t have to be the lynchpin of the Wolves’ defense — something he’s incapable of doing.

There are also other moves they can make here to continue to bolster their roster — moving D’Angelo Russell is the obvious one that hasn’t come to pass yet.

But, at the same time, they’ve basically sacrificed all of the depth that got them into the postseason last year. They gave away important defenders in Beverley and Vanderbilt, who are both legitimate All-Defensive team caliber players. Malik Beasley isn’t the defender they are, but he’s a scoring wing. That has value in the NBA and those players are hard to come by.

There’s also the fact that they just gave up their entire future — picks that could’ve made a difference for a team with a lack of depth — to get one player. Gobert is an awesome player, but is he worth that? I’m unsure.

Ultimately, the Wolves will be in contention for homecourt in the playoffs next season. They’re probably a darkhorse threat to make it all the way to the Finals should things go well. But there are so many “ifs” in that scenario.

The precarious Gobert-Towns fit has to work well. Anthony Edwards has to step up and become a star. D’Angelo Russell — if he’s still there — has to mesh well here. They’ll need to rework a bench rotation now, too.

There are more questions about the Wolves than answers when it comes to this trade. There’s still time to find answers, obviously, but they’ve got to do it before the market dries up.

We’ll see if they can.

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